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Calls for the resignation of the president of the prestigious New York university have multiplied since her establishment became the epicenter of a student movement in support of Palestine.
Minouche Shafik has spent more than three decades working in major international institutions, trying to resolve major crises that have shaken the world. At 61, the president of the prestigious American University Columbia is certainly going through the worst zone of turbulence of her career. The influential Egyptian-British-American economist is subject to growing criticism as her private establishment, one of the most selective in the world, is the epicenter of a movement in support of Palestine which is shaking American campuses.
Since April 17, multi-colored tents have flourished on the impeccably trimmed lawns of Columbia, in the northwest of the New York island of Manhattan. The students peacefully oppose the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has cost tens of thousands of civilian lives, and demand that the university management cut its relations with companies with ties with Israel. “Columbia complicit in genocide”we hear in particular in the processions.
More than 100 students arrested at the university
The scale of the movement took on a new dimension when Minouche Shafik authorized the police, against the advice of the Student Senate, to enter the university and make arrests. The presidency